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Daddy's Girl the Private World of Sofia Coppola

Daddy's Girl the Private World of Sofia Coppola

15.06.13

i am a mighty sex god alan titchmarsh daddy’s (best in show) girl teen cyber the private bullies world of what goes on inside sofia britain’s schools with father in 1990. Opposite: with

Her father is the legendary director, her husband is coppolacoppola a rock star, she is an Oscar-winning film-maker. Life seems so easy for Sofia Coppola. But in private, she tells TimTeeman, she has experienced the public failure of uncovereduncovered her first marriage and the death of her brother From left: with at Fashion Week in February; with second husband , frontman of French band Phoenix

left Sofia Coppola’s latest film, The , feeling deliriously happy about ‘It was really brutal. To be on the cover of a magazine being older and squarer than Coppola’s spoilt, vile characters. My mouth in a with the headline “She Ruined Her Dad’s Movie”’ sour, cat’s-bum pout, I tutted throughout the movie, a stylish drama about a group of teenagers who, in a sonorousness, given that everything The Bling at this year’s Met Ball (in 2002 she modelled free-wheeling spree between 2008 and Ring personifies – brattish acquisitiveness, as the “face” of his fragrance). She speaks I 2009, robbed the homes of celebrities wealth, a veneration of fame and notoriety in a listless monotone, with “That’s private” including , Lindsay – stands in opposition to her blue-chip such a favoured response she’d probably Lohan, and , netting Hollywood lineage: her father is use it if I asked how she felt about the $3 million worth of goods. They made sure and director Francis Ford weather. If her movies reflect an un-pin- their homes were empty by poring over the Coppola, her cousins include actors Nicolas down-ableness, they absolutely reflect gossip about their lives and, when finally Cage and . Her aunt is their writer and director. arrested, relished their own celebrity. The film , most famous for playing Adrian Her own very un-Bling Ring-ish childhood makes you yearn to ride a bike, whooping Balboa, the much-suffering wife of Sylvester was spent not in Hollywood, but mostly a through the countryside, a million miles from Stallone’s , and Connie in The small town in the Napa Valley where her these vapid dunderheads. Godfather. But if Coppola, 42, is disgusted with father, who is also a winemaker, named a It’s beautiful to look at, like all Coppola’s the “Bling Ring” and all their ignominious wine after her, “which is fairly normal there”. films – think of the well-dressed aesthetics of tale embodies, her film has a funny way of The Sofia, the Coppola winery website states, and Lost in Translation showing it. The clothes and cars the teenagers was “born from a celebration of love… Our – yet its moral heart is as elusive and faint steal and covet are lavishly evoked, their sparkling wine, as bright and effervescent as a will-o’-the-wisp, even though the Oscar- crimes a lark. However, Coppola insists The as the woman who inspired it, the charming winning Coppola said recently the teenagers Bling Ring, which premiered in May at the and stylish Sofia Rosé, along with the “summed up everything that I think is , is a tabula rasa for us alluring Riesling, are a tribute to the romantic, l, getty images. ba declining in our culture… Kids are inundated to “imprint” our judgments on to. ebullient spirit of women everywhere.” ko with reality TV and tabloid culture so much In a restaurant in Greenwich Village, Perhaps she reserves this effervescence that this just seems normal… It just seems like New York, Coppola orders steak tartare and for family occasions only. this trash culture is becoming acceptable as asparagus. She is slight, beautiful, with wavy, Her town was “normal, middle-class ge: rex features, getty images

pa mainstream culture.” bobbed hair, wearing a vintage green jacket suburban, where everyone knew each other. Coppola’s criticism has an added layer of by her friend Marc Jacobs, who was her date Nobody had a designer bag.” She is an only previous spread: this

The Times Magazine 17 daughter, which means she gets on at under Karl Lagerfeld well with her male-dominated film (“I was intimidated and scared, crews, she says. “But I’ve always had but he was very friendly and close girlfriends and I have a big girlie kind”) and attended art school. side. I like beautiful flowers, clothes If implies Coppola and romantic stories.” Jacobs and views the world of celebrity and Céline’s Phoebe Philo are her favourite fetishised high fashion with some designers. She and her girlfriends disdain, it should be noted that discuss cosmetics, although her beauty Coppola is a celebrated fashion regime isn’t “extreme, and plastic template herself, a waifish epitome of surgery doesn’t appeal to me”. She cool as lionised by fashion-watchers grew up wanting to be a magazine as their celebrity victims were by editor, loved reading The Face and the “Bling Ring”. There are many French Vogue – “very glamorous, my pictures of Coppola on Pinterest. She only link to the outside world” – and even helmed her own Japan-based became shyer and more self-conscious fashion label, Milkfed. as a teenager. Before directing, Coppola As a little girl, Coppola was a appeared in movies, mostly her “ham”, putting on shows for her father’s: “I’m more comfortable family and bossing other kids around; behind the camera. Being a her mother “traces a direct line” from performer is not my nature.” The that to her becoming a director. She critics agreed: she was panned for her had a privileged upbringing, but “I performance as in appreciate and value things and don’t The Godfather Part III (1990), and take anything for granted. My dad named Worst Supporting Actress and always stressed that working hard Worst New Star at that year’s Golden was very important.” Coppola spent a Raspberry awards. “It was really lot of time on her father’s film sets: brutal. I was 18 and it was hard to her first acting role was as a baby be so put down. To be on the cover being christened in The Godfather of a magazine with the headline ‘She and, aged 3 on the set of The Ruined Her Dad’s Movie’ made me Godfather Part II, she had her own feel bad for embarrassing him. But director’s chair with her name on it. I wasn’t devastated. It wasn’t my As a seven-year-old, she entertained dream to be an actor.” She partied in herself during the fraught filming of Nineties Los Angeles. Was it a wild Apocalypse Now in the Philippines time? “I was never out of control; jungle by drawing elaborate pictures I never had a big drugs phase.” of palm trees and helicopters and Coppola’s first film, made in 1998, weaving the pictures together to form , was a 14-minute short. stories. She moved to New York as a teenager She then heard that an adaptation of Jeffrey during filming of The Cotton Club, taking ‘I wasn’t comfortable in Eugenides’s novel The Virgin Suicides was being yellow cabs “and being here when planned, a book she felt “very protective over was starting to be cool and she wasn’t in my first marriage. Yo u and the way they were planning to do it didn’t yet”. Her father recalls her sitting sound right”. She took on the movie rights. Some on Andy Warhol’s lap. think it will make your accused her of . “I work really hard, but Then, when Coppola had just turned 15, I’m definitely lucky to have the connection with disaster struck. Her brother Gian-Carlo, then relationship something the industry I do. I knew how to get a good 22, was killed after being struck by a towline sound designer. I definitely had advantages but connecting two boats in an accident in else; it didn’t’ was disadvantaged too that people could dismiss to Maryland. Griffin O’Neal, son of Ryan O’Neal me.” She doesn’t feel a desperate need to counter ac

def and at the time filming Gardens of Stone these charges. “You can’t please everybody. I just at directed by Coppola Sr, was piloting the boat granted. It was obviously a very sad time. get on with my work.” ge to

pa both men were on and, it was reported, I was very close to him. Really close. It was The success of Lost in Translation (2003),

mamo was trying to pass between the two boats definitely hard on our family. Somehow we with and as ya connected by the towline. O’Neal ducked to got through. I had therapy at the time. I was two lonely, dislocated souls in a hypnotic umi , still shocks her. “I was writing a ay avoid it; Gian-Carlo suffered massive head pulled out of school. You’re in shock. I think it injuries. Subsequent reports said he had always stays with you. I still miss my brother really personal story about my experience been decapitated. O’Neal was convicted and it’s been more than 20 years. It affects in Japan and what I was going through at of negligently operating a boat and was who you are. But everyone goes through the time. I thought it was really indulgent replaced in the film. tragedies and I don’t want to wallow. It makes and nobody would care about it. I was really

peter hapak. hair: “I think it shapes who you are. It was a you appreciate what you have because you surprised people connected to it.” The film, by devastating time,” Coppola says. “I’m sure don’t know…” Her voice tails off. “It makes which cost $4 million to make, made it did change me. I don’t know what I’d have you appreciate people.” $120 million, winning Coppola the Oscar r shu uemura artbeen of hair. make-up: dick like otherwise. I don’t take life for As a teenager, Coppola was an intern for Best Original Screenplay and a Best portrait fo

The Times Magazine 19 Director nomination. Coppola’s crumbling Less Than Zero (Bret Easton Ellis’s 1985 novel): They love their celebrities’ style and care relationship with her first husband, the “that glamorous, decadent side of LA: lots of about nothing but acquisition; the theft from director , was mirrored in the coke, going to nightclubs, the convertibles”. the celebrities’ homes is an extension of their experience of Johansson’s character. Is the film celebrating the kids’ behaviour or sense of entitlement. “I’m more interested in “I was at that age where you’re supposed skewering their moral failings? “I was trying to visuals than words,” says Coppola. “That’s why to know what you’re doing. I didn’t, or who do both and leave it open for the audience to dialogue in my movies is so sparse. In real life, I was. I was trying to figure out what marriage feel what it wants. I didn’t want to be preachy. people aren’t clear about their feelings. I’m was supposed to be. I wasn’t comfortable I wanted to tell the story from the kids’ point interested in expressing what is unsaid.” in the marriage. We weren’t connecting the of view, so wanted it to be really seductive.” Alexis Neiers, one of the gang, said the way I thought you should be in a relationship.” The teens “assumed they should be film was “trashy and inaccurate”. Coppola Why had she married Jonze? “Oh, I was in celebrities, with their obsession about brands told the BBC, “It’s not a documentary… my twenties; we’d been together for six years.” and bling”, Coppola says. So she’s as repelled I’m not too concerned with their reaction.” She was 22 when they got together, 28 when by them as me? “I don’t want to say.” Why? However, if she is executing a dry satire on they married. “Maybe you think marriage “I just don’t want to be preachy, condemning shallow lives and preoccupations, the film is going to make your relationship into anything.” Surely she has views. “It’s in the is flawed: the shallowness looks way too something else, but it didn’t.” Their divorce movie. I don’t feel it’s my role to say what the much fun. How does she feel about celebrity was “really difficult. You think marriage will message is. People can take what they want culture? “I’m aware of it; it’s fun to look at be for ever. It was hard.” Now, they’re “friendly from the movie. I think it’s clear.” So, what once in a while, but it became so dominant in if we see each other but we’re not involved is it? “I’m trying to be an observer of the their lives it felt very out of balance. Reality in each other’s lives or hanging out”. Winning culture. I grew up with a different kind of TV didn’t exist when we were growing up: this awards – the movie also scooped Golden culture and values.” idea that anyone can be famous without Globes and Baftas – was “bittersweet… Indeed, Coppola is “making a big effort” to working hard.” going through the divorce yet being insulate her two young daughters, Romy, 6, Coppola’s quiet, arty outrage may win over fêted professionally”. and Cosima, 3, from whatever it is she won’t some critics. However, there was a group of Hollywood “is definitely a boys’ club”. Is pass a view on. Coppola wants her children to teenage girls at my screening who perceived it hostile to female directors? “Not for me. “appreciate the value of things” so presumably the film as a fun game of dress-up. “Oh my People are really encouraging of my work.” Is she rejects all values “Bling Ring”. “I don’t God, that’s so cool,” one shouted as the young criminals let themselves into Paris Hilton’s closet. “That’s the bag,” another shrieked as ‘I still miss my brother and it’s been more than the gang laid their hands on a mega-expensive Birkin belonging to . Emma 20 years. Yo u’re in shock. It affects who you are’ Watson’s nasty character – in the actress’s break-out-from-Harry-Potter role – was deemed “so hot” and “like such a bitch”, the Hollywood sexist? “I never thought about that. want them to dress like hookers,” she says only moral pronouncement the girls made. I just do my own thing. There have definitely sharply. But celebrity culture is creeping in: “I try not to glamorise their actions,” Coppola been situations where I think it would have at a “graduation” for Romy’s cookery class says. “I don’t show them as heroes. I was been different if I had been a guy.” What Coppola successfully argued against the showing it could be fun but also too much.” were they? “I can’t say.” How did she deal teacher’s wish that the event include a Hilton stars as herself (her hallway chairs with whatever these occasions were? “I don’t red carpet. feature cushions with her face on them). engage with it.” Is she a feminist? “I was raised Coppola married her daughters’ father, Coppola liked her, “much more than I’d by a feminist but I don’t really describe myself Thomas Mars, vocalist with the French band expected to. She’s very friendly, laid back and as anything. I don’t want to be political and Phoenix, in 2011. “I didn’t think I would want has a playful sense of humour about herself.” I don’t make political statements. Actions to marry again, but I didn’t want to miss the Coppola has a few close associates whose speak louder than words: it’s important to experience of being married to the person opinion she values, but she avoids reviews and be independent and strong.” She writes and I was most suited to.” They moved from negative critiques. “I’m too sensitive. If I’m directs all her movies: writing is “the hardest Paris to New York for the girls’ schooling. happy with it, I like it. I don’t want to hear part”, but “I fill out what I need to fill out” “Motherhood definitely changes you, how you people putting me up or down. I’d rather not later in the director’s chair. Independence spend your time,” says Coppola. “I used to care what other people think.” One criticism “means a lot”; she can’t imagine writing or write at night. I think motherhood makes you of you is that your films prize style over directing for anyone but herself. “I haven’t nicer, the soft humility you get when your kid substance, I say. “I think a film can look good worked much with big studios. It’s important is throwing up on you.” Does she want more and have depth. I don’t think anyone likes to for me to have creative control.” children? “If I didn’t work. But I don’t plan read their films lack substance.” That’s why Her (2006) was a on having more.” she avoids critics? “Wouldn’t you?” she retorts. rock-’n’-roll-drenched take on the French The “Bling Ring” teenagers, immersed Surely some criticism can make for better queen; Somewhere (2010), about a louche actor in celebrity culture and the internet so work, I say. “I don’t avoid people,” insists shacked up at the , won her thoroughly they knew not only the addresses Coppola. “I don’t live in a bubble.” But she the at the , of their victims but when they were out does and it’s carefully constructed to allow the first American female director to win. of town, robbed them with the dead-eyed Coppola to tell her kind of glossy, wry stories “It seemed like an absurd story and a materialistic élan you’d expect from over- exactly the way she chooses. How we read her movie immediately,” Coppola says of the indulged brats who rave lunatically over what films – and her – Coppola leaves squarely, Vanity Fair article that inspired The Bling Ring. “Lindsay” is wearing. They are rude to, or defiantly, up to us. n “It’s always fun to read about teenagers getting alienated from, their parents; their work ethic into trouble.” Her aesthetic inspiration was extends to getting into the right nightclubs. The Bling Ring opens on July 5

20 The Times Magazine

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